FERRIS BUELLER: AN AMERICAN HERO Ferris Bueller is an American hero. He has the ability to go out and do anything that he desires without any great fear of the consequences. He does what every white middle class American high school student in suburbia dreams of doing. The film in which Ferris stars, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off chronicles the events in the day of a rather magical young man... (who) gives into an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl and his best friend" (Spurr 1997). He manages to borrow his best friend's father's red Ferrari, stand at the top of the tallest building of the world, have lunch at a high class restaurant, and be in a parade. Ferris comments during the Cubs baseball game that the three friends attended, "If we played by the rules, we'd be in gym right now." Somehow, Ferris manages to exclude himself from the rules that most other teenagers in suburbia are forced to play by. Ferris seizes the day for what he sees to be its full value. Even with Ferris' "carpe diem" attitude, Ferris is still seen as the perfect child in the eyes of his parents. While he is home sick in bed, his parents pamper to his needs. It may be that Ferris simply knows the right things to say to his parents so that they would never have reason to doubt him. They would never suspect that their son could cut nine days of school, as Mr. Rooney suggests. They are reassured of their own beliefs by Ferris' tricks. What Mrs. Bueller thinks to be Ferris sleeping soundly in bed is actually a dummy. Yet, for whatever reason, his parents see Ferris as a perfect angel of a son. His personality gives him the ability to come across to the entire community as an all-around good kid. He always seems to say and do the right thing. Though the community may see this one side of Ferris, the teenagers see another. Likewise, they adore him. They adore him for being the troublemaker that he is. Ferris is not a good kid anymore than he is a bad kid. The slightly devilish and the angelic sides of Ferris make him a hero. In his essay, "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert B. Ray frowns upon the American people for choosing such an example as a hero. Ray is gravely disappointed with the apparent automatic preference of the American people to choose a hero with less respectability over a hero of decency and honor (285). The reckless, abusing teenagers were idolized (Dazed and Confused); the cynical, lonely old man was embraced (As Good As It Gets). Ferris embodies more of the qualities of that of the less respectable hero. However, as already stated, it isn't that Ferris is a bad kid. He simply isn't the type of person that one should aspire to be like. However, indeed part of the reason that the film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, captured the hearts of so many American kids is simply based on the fact that they could relate to Ferris' thought process. After all, what high school student has awoken on a bright sunny day and thought that this particular day shouldn't be wasted inside classroom? There are several clips throughout the film of a teacher giving a stereotypical boring lecture while most of his students are fast asleep with puddles of drool collecting on their desks. Most Americans who attended high school at some point in their life can relate to this image. They've been there. Furthermore, most of them have seriously considered escaping. Many have played sick. But, Ferris takes playing hokey to a higher level. He's not just cutting out on school, Ferris is seizing the day. As much as Ray may criticize the American people for revering Ferris in such a manner, he is a hero. Ray claims that there are several types of heroes in American culture: the reluctant hero, the George Washington official type hero and the Davy Crockett outlaw hero. Where the official hero is an individual of a respected occupation as a teacher or a lawyer, the outlaw hero is the "adventurer" (Ray 279). The outlaw hero is more reckless. The outlaw hero is Ferris Bueller. Ferris captures the sense of adventure of every once- was-high school student in America with his carefree attitude and pure sense of adventure. He embodies the American "(values of) self- determination and freedom from entanglements" (Ray 279). He sets out to do what he desires and has no real care for the consequences. If he had truly cared about the consequences and not believed that he would get away with it, Ferris never would have cut school and then taken a day in the city. He works his way through sticky situations carefully and cunningly to avoid an awkward encounter with some sort of authoritative figure that might otherwise get him in trouble. Just outside of the restaurant after lunch, Ferris and his friends get stuck behind Ferris' father. However, Ferris claims that they shall never surrender and just as surely he sneaks behind his father into a taxi cab. If his father had caught Ferris, his angelic image would have been crushed indefinitely. The sense of adventure is not, however, the only attraction of the American people that towards such characters as Davy Crockett and Ferris Bueller. According to Ray, there are definite traits that are favored by the American people. The first of these traits is age. The American audience, according to Ray, sways towards the stance of a younger individual. There is something attractive about the childishness of an outlaw (279). In an old country western film, this would probably equate with a character's tendency towards brawls that could have otherwise been avoided without complete submission to one's temper. Instead, America embraces Ferris' boyish charm. Ferris doesn't need to get into a brawl to show his childish side. He is a child. In one instance, Ferris wants his best friend, Cameron to come over and pick him up so Ferris threatens that he won't be Cameron's best friend anymore. Furthermore, Ferris has the childish impulse to disregard all responsibilities, such as school. His impulse is to fake an illness, which is a childish prank. There is a duality in Ferris' age however. He is at that time in his life where he is neither a child nor an adult. Therefore, there is some complexity to this trait. Though he most of his impulses and actions characterize that of a child, Ferris does also possess some qualities of an adult, thereby also possessing the qualities of an official hero. Ferris demonstrates "sound reasoning and judgment... (and) wisdom.... based on experience (Ray 280)." It is evident that he has pulled these kinds of childish pranks before. However, through these pranks, he has developed a certain amount of wisdom that allow him to better conduct himself. He knows how to respond. He knows when to act and how to act in each given situation, even though he still demonstrates it through the outward actions of a child. However, it is the childish actions that makes the American high school viewers love Ferris. The viewer is not concerned with his "sound reasoning" in any way. The viewer enjoys the film for its face value: a child being childish. This childish bad boy, according to Ray, is supposed to demonstrate a large "distrust towards civilization" in the manner that he treats the women in his life (280). Ferris' distrust does not lie in his girlfriend, Sloane. According to Ray, he should be non-committal and instinctively seeking the "bad" woman (280). Instead, Ferris shows his affection towards Sloane at several points during the film. He even goes as far as to propose to her, despite their young age. He says himself that he is afraid of losing her next year while she completes her senior year of high school and he is off at college. As futile as the proposal seems when he utters the words, Ferris is very genuine in his proposal to Sloane. He loves her and does want to spend the rest of his life with her. He shows the maturity of being able to devote himself to one woman and really care about her. Ferris disproves Horatio Alger's official hero characters who "subscribed fully to the codes of civilization... and the attainment of the very things despised by the opposing tradition: the settled life and respectability" (Ray 281). Ferris may not follow the codes of civilization, in terms of attending school when he is supposed to attend. However, he does demonstrate a desire towards the "settled" or married life in his proposal to Sloane. He shows a genuine maturity in his intense feelings for her. He's not the bad boy that won't commit and is toying with and dumping girls like it was God's will. No one likes that. That image doesn't pair up with the image of this little boy that Ferris has thus far portrayed. Ferris wouldn't win the hearts of nearly so many viewers without this little anecdote of puppy love between Ferris and Sloane. Ferris' puppy love and his childishness all contribute to the fact that he is an adolescent kid. He's a young guy who wants to discover new things that he hasn't found as of yet. He's a child trying to break free into adulthood. However, that's a big change and consequently very awkward. He's struggling to "cast aside the dependent relationship of childhood and gain control of his life." (Schmidtt 1990) This results in the diagnosis of adolescent rebellion. Ferris is trying to break away and yet he doesn't know quite how to do so. So, Ferris breaks the "law." Since most kids are supposed to go to school and the film is all about Ferris' day of hokey, it is evident that Ferris does not follow the social norms. Though, he was supposed to go to school, he didn't. The "law" in a way follows him in the form of Edward Rooney, Dean of Students. However, the law is ineffective in cracking down on Ferris because he has become so good at escaping it. Rooney tries to catch Ferris by mouthing off to Sloane's father, a pretend-Mr. Peterson, whom Rooney thinks is to be Ferris. However, Ferris is one step ahead of Rooney when calls himself on the other line and also changes Sloane's answering machine to further enhance his lie. Rooney has no way of finding Ferris' out because the "outlaw" is always one step ahead of the law. Ray closes his argument against the American preference to the outlaw hero by arguing against the story lines of the films and novels of American pop culture. Ray shows utter distaste in the fact that American stories no longer account for any moral substance. The story has become that based on the "American humor" where every thing is "laughed off," as it is in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, demphasized or overdone with emotional garbage (Ray 286). No where in this film are the consequences of Ferris' actions truly weighed. Ferris is a prankster. He plays jokes. He gets his peers out of summer school. He changes his attendance record through his computer. He has no moral connection to these actions. Similarly, the Winnebago Indians have a myth not of Ferris Bueller, but of the Trickster. He is a little impish creature who "wills nothing consciously. (Yet) at all times he is constrained to behave as he does from impulses over which he has no control. He knows neither good nor evil yet he is responsible for both." (Radin xxiii) Ferris is a little impish boy who acts out of his impulses much like this legend. He does not take into account the moral boundaries. However, unlike the Trickster, he must know that there are certain moral restrictions. Yet, he still behaves in this manner and like the Trickster becomes a legend of his own time amongst his peers. All moral questions are overlooked and Ferris instead gets out of the jam. In the end of the film, Ferris' sister comes to his rescue so that Ferris just avoids being caught and punished by Mr. Rooney. He runs to the safety of his bed where his mother offers to prepare him some soup so that Ferris might feel better. The film doesn't bring into account that playing hokey is wrong and therefore, it should not be done. It is merely inferred through Cameron's sentiments and fears of getting caught. Overall, however, Ray would most likely dismiss the film as a joke. Essay by Ms. Elsa Peters (e_peters@skidmore.edu) Copyright 1998 by the author Professor Lori Anderson EN 105 014 17 February 1998 Elsa Peters WORKS CITED - Radin, Paul. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology. New York: Schocken Books, 1956. - Ray, Robert B. "The Thematic Paradigm." Signs of Life in the U.S.A. ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. - Schmitt, Barton D. M.D. Dealing with Normal Adolescent Rebellion. The Virtual Children's Hospital. http://indy.radiology.uiowa.edu/Patients/IHB/Peds/Psych/Rebellion.html (1998, February 15). - Spurr, Jeremy. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. http://www.dartmouth.edu/`bueller (1998, February 15).